HISTORY OF THE DUKES OF BOLTON 1600-1815: Love Loyalty

Discover over 200 years of fascinating history relating to one of Great Britain's foremost aristocratic dynasties, the (Orde-) Powletts, for several generations the Dukes of Bolton. The family motto, Love Loyalty, references their devotion to the monarchy, but it applies equally to their hearts. 'It isn't possible to tell the story of the Bolton dynasty without also telling of the strife-ridden years of the English Civil Wars and the downfall of Charles I, of the Restoration of Charles II, the Glorious Revolution which saw William of Orange and his wife Mary take the throne, and of the arrival of the Hanoverian monarchs on these shores.' Successive generations of the family, first Marquesses of Winchester, then Dukes of Bolton and latterly the title Baron Bolton, have been centre stage and indeed they have helped to write British history. This then is simultaneously a history of Britain between the years 1640 and 1815 and their love affairs, triumphs, foibles and tragedies. 'Lord Temple's seat was the magnificent Stowe House in Buckinghamshire, a grand mansion set amid picturesque landscape gardens laid out by Capability Brown (who had been the estate's Head Gardener). It was from this idyllic setting that Lord Temple, reeling from the shocking news, replied to his brother, and the letter contained a thinly veiled reference to the 5th Duke of Bolton's younger brother and heir, Harry. Packed with superb detail of dress codes, the behaviour of valets, the household, of Mary Banks Brown, the 1st Duke's long-term mistress and mother of his daughter who found the prone body of the man she loved laying on the floor with a gaping, visceral wound visible on the left side of his head and the pistol in his hand. Chapters include After This Sudden Death in Grosvenor Square, the Earl, His Cook and Their Castles, A Nest of Idolatry, A Court In-Exile, The Restoration, The Duke and his Housekeeper and The Last Duke of Bolton and the social intricacies woven through this turbulent period. Very well illus. and colour plates, 225 pages.